"Wouldn’t dreams be coming trueIf we kept the Christmas spiritAll the whole year through?"- Carolyn Wells

Christmas is over, joy, stress, preparation and work. Now the leftovers are put away, dishes cleaned, wrapping paper stuffed into a large garbage bag, … without the boxes surreptitiously kept out, so gifts, over which you oohed and aahed, can be exchanged.

Christmas, whether you are Christian or not, is the one holiday during the year that builds to a grand crescendo of expectations, even more than New Year’s Eve. For that occasion fireworks in large cities worldwide are spectacular. Cities are almost macho in their displays, but you might or might not see these spectacular bursts of light and color.

During Christmas though, the world can either be a buyer or a seller, a giver or receiver, and in most instances both: everyone plays a role. Isn’t that the holiday that keeps economies thriving throughout the world. Pundits announce company results at the end of the season as if it was a horse race.

But the letdown is also a time for reflection. We’re not quite ready to make that New Year’s resolution. We certainly can mull it over.

A suggestion: read a chapter from the book, "Particular Passions: Talks with Women who Have Shaped our Times." The stories will inspire anyone - man or woman- to think of what they want to commit to in the new year.

A suggestion: read Gloria Steinem’s brief oral biography. "There aren’t two sides to everything. There are eleven, or a hundred ...and it’s a gross distortion of reality to say...there has to be a winner or a loser. Reality is much more diverse and interesting than that.”